Aulana Peters

Aulana L. Peters is a retired partner of the national law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. From 1973 to 1984 and from 1988 to 2000, Aulana was a member of Gibson Dunn’s Litigation Department and was actively involved in general business and commercial litigation with an emphasis on accountants’ liability and securities law litigation, including class action suits, tender offer/proxy contests, and SEC enforcement actions. From 1984 through 1988, Aulana served as a Commissioner on the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. After returning to private practice, in 1988, Aulana continued her public service by serving on the Steering Committee for the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Financial Reporting Project (1990-1992).

Following her retirement from Gibson Dunn in 2000, Aulana was appointed to the Public Oversight Board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She served in that capacity until 2002 and served on the Board’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Audit Effectiveness. In 2005, Aulana was appointed to the International Public Interest Oversight Board for Auditing, Education and Professional Ethics Standards and served as a member until 2012. Aulana was also a longstanding member of the United States Comptroller General’s Accountability Advisory Panel and of the Advisory Board to the Public Company Accountants Oversight Board. In addition to her public service, Aulana has served on several not for profit boards. In 2017, she completed her service as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Mayo Clinic. She also served as a trustee to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board from 2012 to 2016. In addition, she has served on the Advisory Council to the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange.

From 1990 to 2015, Aulana served on the Board of Directors for a number of Fortune 500 companies. These included the boards of IDS Mutual Funds, Mobil Corporation and Merrill Lynch & Co.; she also served on the Boards of John Deere, Northrop Grumman Corporation and 3M Corporation until she reached retirement age.

In February 2003, the Association of Securities and Exchange Commission Alumni named Aulana the 11th recipient of the William O. Douglas Award for having made significant contributions to the development of the Federal Securities Law as well as the SEC and the Financial Community. In 2010, she was awarded the Medal of Honor by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants for distinguished service by a non-accountant to the accounting profession.

Aulana earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from the College of New Rochelle in 1963 and earned her law degree from the University of Southern California in 1973. In 2019, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters by the College of New Rochelle.